James Robertson proves that “Black Female Privilege” is bunk and Black political leadership is a failure

over 4 years ago

“Sheeeeeeeit…”

-Clay Davis, The Wire

Perhaps you’ve heard of one Ms. James Robertson, of the smouldering crater that was once the proud city of Detroit, and her literal Long Walk to work on the daily – to the tune of 21 miles each way. She has done this for at least a decade, and has touched off a crowdfunding firestorm, complete with offers of cars, money and more from people all over the country. It, of course, has sparked a conversation about all of the usual tropes: about how we, the United States of America, shouldn’t be having people laboring under such conditions due to our wealth and largesse; about how evil Republicans view working folk, especially those who happen to be non-White; and, of course, more general pearl-clutching at notions of Racism and the like being the culprit of long-festering conditions that have brought great cities like Motown low.

But what gets left out are the following questions and issues that your correspondent will raise in today’s essay. To do that, I refer the reader to a previous article of mine, “Tackling The Bugbear of “Black Female Privilege” – where I made the case, in point for point fashion, that the “argument” proffered by the Black Masculists and Social Justice Warrior crowd, is a feeble one. No one with a straight face, after looking at Ms. Robertson’s daily travails, can say that she is somehow “privileged” over all Black men, forever and ever Amen, by simply being Black and well, female. The absurdity gets even greater, when we consider those who make such statements, again with a straight face, who in every way anyone who actually is in tune with reality could recognize, that they are hand over fist more privileged than Ms. Robertson. I mean, really – does anyone reading this believe that Princeton-educated First Gentleman Michelle Obama, or MSNBC fixture Prof. Melissa Harris-Perry, or media icon Oprah Winfrey, is less privileged than Ms. Robertson?

Really?

It has long been my view that the “thinking” on the part of the supposed Talented Tenth class in Black America has been fuzzy for a very long time, and does not acquit them well, nor does it make the rest of us look good before the world. The proof, in glaring relief and brutally painful detail, can be seen in Detroit itself. While Black Talking Heads like to trot out all manner of excuses as to how and why Detroit has become the poster child for Black fracture, failure and dysfunction (read: “it’s all the White Woman’s fault”), the historical record says something else: at this juncture in 2015, Motown has been under the thumb of a one-party/one-race political rule for the better part of a half a century, and the results are bleedingly, painfully obvious. Sure, racism happened – but what does that have to do with the actions of Coleman Young – or more recently, Kwame’ Kilpatrick? How does that square with the kinds of antics that routinely occur in city council, where the husbands of prominent Black US congresswomen routinely get rip with school kids? How are we to explain the rife corruption, incompetence, graft, greed and just in-your-face cronyism that was endemic on the watch of Black political leadership?

What, Ms. Charlie made them do it?

If you’re detecting just a hint of extra “salt” in my remarks and observations, it’s because in so many ways, James Robertson is me – as a fellow Blue Collar Brotha who was born and raised in a de facto Black city with strong working class roots, I too have seen how the so-called Black political leadership has run my hometown into the ground, and has not just not done anything worth the name for Black voters, but they’ve made matters markedly worse. Many of them have no qualms robbing their own constituents blind, all the while talking all that “Black” smack – much like the fictional Clay Davis from The Wire.

One of the things I have been doing is asking Black women in particular – everyday, salt of the earth, out on the bricks, working Black women – exactly what has Black political leadership in general, and yeah I’ll say it, Presidential leadership in particular in the person of Ms. Barack Obama, done for them? Usually I get some mumbling about “history” or “racism,” but when I ask them have they made more or less money since Obama took the White House for instance, all of a sudden they either get really mad, or they get really quiet. When I bring it back home to the local scene, much of the same pattern ensues. Once I roll out fact after fact and instance after instance of exactly how their own Black leaders have actively worked to undermine their own interests, that’s when I’m accused of being a Black Republican, a sellout, an Aunt Tom, a self-hater, and so forth. Of course, all of this is just a smokescreen – they do all of this, because they CAN’T refute any of what I have just said.

And yet, they can and will turn right around and vote for these jokers – again. What. An. Embarrassment.

It was women like James Robertson, and my mom and granddad, and yea, I’ll say it, me – who made it possible for all these Black Talking Heads to pontificate from on-high, and what my sisters get for their continued and unquestioned support is a bucket of piss thrown in their faces while being told that it’s raining outside.

I don’t want to hear anything about “see, what had happened was…racism!” nor do I care to be particular as to which Black pols did or didn’t do thus and so – they are all to blame.

And it was long overdue that they were put on blast and told they suck.

The working class working woman, and for purposes of this discussion the Black one, has seen her standard of living sink to truly third world levels, and all on the watch of the so-called Best & Brightest that Black America has to offer. It is time we told the whole lot of them that we want a divorce.